SpaceX Falcon Heavy (updates & maiden flight)

[Blue-Vision]

I love that, thanks.  

[DocM]

The Falcon Heavy Block 5 - Arabsat 6A launch should go uphill in Q4, so get your popcorn, brats and brews ready ?

[Blue-Vision]

If anyone wanted to see a clinic in raw power not seen since Apollo/Saturn, that'll be the show to watch.  

[DocM]

7 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

If anyone wanted to see a clinic in raw power not seen since Apollo/Saturn, that'll be the show to watch.  

 

AIUI they'll need to put a few tonnes of ballast on board - the satellite "only"  masses 6,000+ kg.

[Blue-Vision]

Hmm. Can't do a LZ return with all three cores, no matter the payload weight; so that's out. Makes more sense to launch with an F9, but the FH is the vehicle earmarked for this flight ...

 

I dunno. I'm mulling this one over and the points don't intersect. Must be a "because we can" thing. But yeah, it's gonna require ballast. FH does have minimum weight restrictions, and this is pushing into those minimums.

[DocM]

Falcon Heavy Block 5 is to take over the high-energy "hot" GTO/GEO launches to extend the life of F9 cores. Its center core has been over-built to handle the higher physical & thermal loads of those, big military, lunar and BEO launches.

 

MO: LZ-1 & LZ-2 for the boosters, ASDS OCISLY for the center core.  A guaranteed cool show for big crowds around KSC.

 

Can you even imagine the crowd for the first BFR launch? ?

Edited August 30, 2018 by DocM

[Blue-Vision]

Okay that makes sense then. I hadn't even considered that. Save that kind of abuse for FH cores that can deal with it.  Thanks @DocM.

[DocM]

MO #2: two ASDS's catch the boosters, expending the center core.

 

Another east coast ASDS is under construction;  A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASoG).

 

This gives 90% of the fully expended Falcon Heavy performance; 57,420 kg to LEO etc., but at a cost only $5m more than the $90m base price.

[Blue-Vision]

 I hadn't heard the name of the new ASDS! Neat!

 

And YES .... finally ... the expendable-center stats are live. Just wait until the fully-expendable stats go public ... a nice, reliable 65,000 kg to LEO with safety margins.

[DocM]

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Looks like that image was from last year....

 

We'll hopefully have the parts for the real deal shipping over the next month and a half....can't wait!

[DocM]

Odd dating, because the maiden flight nose cones were shipped from Hawthorne on the booster cores.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

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So it turns out that risking a six-hour coast on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket was a pretty genius move.

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1055470444613115905

 

 

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket seems to be a hit with satellite companies

 

 

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A six-hour coast on the Falcon Heavy's demo flight proved to be a shrewd move.

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When the Falcon Heavy rocket launched for the first time in February, some critics of the company wondered what exactly the rocket's purpose was. After all, the company's Falcon 9 rocket had become powerful enough that it could satisfy the needs of most commercial customers. One such critic even told me, "The Falcon Heavy is just a vanity project for Elon Musk."

 

At the time, the rocket only had a couple of launches on its manifest, including the six-ton Arabsat 6A satellite for Arabsat of Saudi Arabia and the Space Test Program-2 mission for the US Air Force. However, since that time SpaceX has seen the rocket certified for national security missions by the US military and has signed several additional launch contracts.

Last week, the Swedish satellite company Ovzon signed a deal for a Falcon Heavy launch as early as late 2020 for a geostationary satellite mission. And just on Thursday, ViaSat announced that it, too, had chosen the Falcon Heavy to launch one of its future ViaSat-3 satellite missions in the 2020 to 2022 timeframe.

 

"We selected SpaceX as they continue to demonstrate their commitment to advancing space technologies," Dave Ryan, president of space systems at ViaSat, said in a news release. "Their proven technology is both powerful and efficient enough to thrust a ViaSat-3 spacecraft close to geostationary orbit."

 

That Tesla flight

In explaining their rocket choice, both Ovzon and ViaSat cited the ability of the Falcon Heavy to deliver heavy payloads "direct"—or almost directly—to geostationary orbit, an altitude nearly 36,000km above the Earth's surface. Typically, rockets launching payloads bound for geostationary orbit drop their satellites into a "transfer" orbit, from which the satellite itself must spend time and propellant to reach the higher orbit. (More on these orbits can be found here).

 

Back in February, SpaceX got a fair amount of pushback for launching the "frivolous" payload of a Tesla into an orbit that would bring it near Mars. However, the key thing about that launch was not so much the payload—and to be clear, NASA was offered a more or less "free" launch if it wanted something delivered into deep space—but the mission profile itself, which was a test flight.

On the day before launch, SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained that the rocket would demonstrate the capability to send payloads directly to geostationary orbit by firing its second stage after a prolonged shutdown during which the rocket would coast. “The six-hour coast is needed for a lot of the big Air Force intel missions for direct injections to GEO,” Musk said.

more at the link...

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/spacexs-falcon-heavy-rocket-seems-to-be-a-hit-with-satellite-companies/

 

reference...

 

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Viasat books Falcon Heavy for ViaSat-3 launch http://bit.ly/2z1E5QG

https://twitter.com/SpaceNews_Inc/status/1055481881762955264

 

 

[DocM]

More space industry and media "experts" with egg on their faces.

 

Also, SpaceX is looking for  $500m in additional financing, with potential investors going through Goldman Sachs. 

Edited October 25, 2018 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

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Starman has reached aphelion! In honor of that wondrous day, I'm sharing some never before seen photos taken with my 4 remote cameras that captured Falcon Heavy's maiden journey.

 

https://twitter.com/TheFavoritist/status/1060611833151868933

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

links...if they will not show at times...

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrgMWJGWkAEb4uR.jpg

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrgMXywWkAAa9ml.jpg

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrgMw8wXQAA0Iya.jpg

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrgMyS3WkAAW0WD.jpg

 

😎

[Draggendrop Veteran]

On the way or now at McGregor...could be for ArabSat-6A in January.

 

 

https://old.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/9vwp7j/is_this_a_booster_i_saw_it_in_maricopa_az/

 

larger image

https://preview.redd.it/35m3s109tjx11.jpg?width=1024&auto=webp&s=d73cfb3f0194bad1ae7a6fabd31c31490c7a2f7c

 

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[Draggendrop Veteran]

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Look who was waving at passing planes over McGregor today! A Falcon Heavy side booster on the McGregor test stand for a static fire test.

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1063998180776394752

 

 

larger image...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsP3YJoW0AAcJ3F.jpg

[DocM]

Cropped/enhanced to show the new "upper stage" stand, which looks way too big for F9 upper stages

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

A congressman’s loss clouds the future of two demanding missions to Europa

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/12/will-the-europa-missions-be-iced-after-congressmans-defeat-not-right-now/

 

A very long article...but has it's goodies...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

Can't launch soon enough...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Falcon Heavy customer Ovzon orders GEO satellite from SSL

 

 

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WASHINGTON — Swedish startup Ovzon, which in October bought a Falcon Heavy launch from SpaceX, has now purchased a satellite for that mission from Maxar Technologies’ Space Systems Loral division.

 

The manufacturing contract, announced Dec. 17, is for a geostationary communications satellite designed for mobile broadband services. In a press release, Ovzon said the satellite is expected to be complete in 2021, and that the date of the Falcon Heavy launch, originally set for no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020, has “been adjusted accordingly.”

 

Ovzon made no mention of how its plans with Space Systems Loral (SSL) will be affected by Maxar’s near-term divestment from SSL’s geostationary satellite manufacturing business. Maxar said late last month that it still intended to announce by year’s end whether it would sell the business outright or liquidate SSL’s valuable Silicon Valley real estate holdings. On Dec. 6, Maxar said it sold a 4.5-acre site across the street from SSL’s main Palo Alto, California, campus for $70 million and planned to relocate the 400 affected employees. Maxar didn’t identify the buyer, but Google confirmed to local media that it bought the land. Prior to the sale, Maxar estimated it could raise $150 million to $200 million by selling off the 29 acres it owned in Palo Alto.

 

Ovzon said its contract with SSL is conditional on raising money for the satellite. The full mission, including manufacturing, launch, financing and insurance, will cost approximately 1.5 billion Swedish krona ($166 million), the company estimates.

 

“Our collaboration with Ovzon underscores the demand for a new class of communication satellite that is flexible, affordable and highly advanced” Dario Zamarian, SSL group president, said in a statement. ”SSL brings the innovation and heritage required to help Ovzon deliver a new class of mobile broadband service to its customers.”  

Ovzon expects to complete half the financing through a rights offer, and the other half through a combination of existing funds and external loans.

 

It is not clear whether Ovzon will be the only passenger on its Falcon Heavy mission, or if the company will split the cost with one or more passengers. In an October interview, Ovzon CEO Per Wahlberg cautioned not to read into the satellite’s size based on that of the rocket.

more at the link...

https://spacenews.com/falcon-heavy-customer-ovzon-orders-geo-satellite-from-ssl/

 

[DocM]

New Falcon Heavy maiden flight montage with some new footage, about 5 min

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2018 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

If that video doesn't make your pulse rise...you may be living as a domesticated human.

[DocM]

Can you even imagine how a successfull SH+Starship launch & landing would be received?